Irrigation handball during the
Goulburn Broken’s Water Olympics.
Left Riding the waves during the
Goulburn Broken’s Water Olympics.
Boat cruises were a popular
activity during National water
Week in the Goulburn Broken
region.
Port Phillip Waterwatch and Waterwatch
Victoria staff undertake a turbidity
snapshot on the banks of the Yarra River.
Below Local students get active with water
during National Water Week.
National Water Week 2004
National Water Week 2004 was again a major event on the
Waterwatch calendar. The theme ‘Water for Life’ encouraged
everyone to get involved in river health activities, and to conserve
precious water. The Waterwatch team organised a plethora of
diverse activities during the week-long event to engage Victorian
communities and celebrate our waterways.
Port Phillip & Westernport
It was a ‘Water Week Frenzy’ across the entire Port Phillip and
Westernport region, with a staggering 46 different events held over
the week. The launch of the Stony Creek Neighbourhood
Environment Improvement Plan with Minister Thwaites and
coordinator Leigh Mitchell set the tone. Half a dozen festivals,
expos, program launches for recently joined councils, catchment
tours, and a series of advanced (all-day) training sessions for
teachers followed. Special highlights included the launch of the
Index of Stream Condition 4-day training program. A successful
‘catch a carp day’ organised by coordinator Ben Scullin saw a sixyear-old girl nearly dragged into the Darebin Creek by Colonel
Sherman – a 14lb monster – who lived to fight another day.
North East
A fish-a-thon, walks in wetlands, an interactive display and a bug
search were among the many and varied activities offered to North
East residents for National Water Week. North East Waterwatch
and the North East CMA developed a 'Calendar of Events', which
featured 14 activities and events that 10 different groups and
organisations offered 'free' to the community for the week. A water
bug search, interactive displays, colouring and poster competitions,
school snapshot of the Kiewa River, interpretive river and wetland
walks along with free water testing were among the popular
activities on offer.
Wimmera
Waterwatch Yearbook 2004
18
Local primary school students kicked off National Water Week in
2004 in the Wimmera by launching the new Waterwatch Trailer and
the Strategic Plan (2004-07). In the western Wimmera, local
students were treated to an environmental smorgasbord of diverse
activities, including macro-invertebrate monitoring and bird
watching. At the Brambuk Indigenous Cultural Centre in the upper
catchment, champion marathon swimmer Tammy Van Wisse
capped off the week by facilitating the symbolic joining of pipes
painted in the theme ‘Water For Life’ by people in different schools,
catchments, service clubs, and indigenous groups. This symbolic
pipe structure was designed to reaffirm the importance of all groups
in western Victoria to continue to care for shared water.
Glenelg Hopkins
School-based activities formed the basis of National Water Week
activities in the Glenelg Hopkins region. Events were conducted in
partnership with water authorities, state government departments,
Fishcare, Coastcare and Alcoa Frogwatch. Local musician Barry
Peters and ‘The Connies’ spread the message on the importance
of our waterways through song and dance. In Port Fairy, ‘Thorn’
the Little Falcon stole the attention of many students as he feasted
on quail wings, while at the same time highlighting the importance
of soil and water health to all levels of the food chain. The take
home message, that anything that happens in a catchment can
have downstream effects on others, was heard loud and strong.
Corangamite
The Corangamite Waterwatch program had its hands full during
National Water Week, with the Balyang Bonanza and official launch
of the Corangamite Waterwatch Stormwater trail, TWO catch-acarp days, turbidity and macroinvertebrate snapshots, and other
Waterwatch celebrations. Tammy Van Wisse, the official
ambassador for National Water Week, officially launched the 500m,
self-guided stormwater trial in Balyang Sanctuary, Geelong, in front
of 250 local students. The trail has 5 interpretive signs identifying
stormwater pollutants and is linked to the Victorian Stormwater
Education Manual.
Central Highlands
Central Highlands Region Waterwatch held two major events; the
celebration of it’s 10-year anniversary and the opening of a newly
created wetlands during the 2004 National Water Week. Central
Highlands Water’s Deputy Chairperson, Ms Judith Coull, officially
opened the new wetland at Gong Gong Reservoir Park. The tenyear anniversary of the CHR Waterwatch Program was also
marked by the launch of an environmental poster series, focusing
on major river systems in the Central Highlands catchment areas.
Corangamite Waterwatch launched its interpretive Stormwater Trail
during National Water Week.
Students present a community
announcement during the Ricky D
Rainman show.
Right This father and daughter
caught a carp during a
Corangamite Catch-a-Carp day.
Above East Gippsland Waterwatch
unveiled its new Waterwatch
trailer during National Water
Week.
Below ‘Water for Life’ pipes
joined together in the Wimmera to
reaffirm the importance of
sharing and caring for our water
resources.
Mallee
In the Mallee, several environmental programs, including
Waterwatch, formed a National Water Week committee. This
committee launched a calendar poster, that included an
aggregation of local students’ posters under the ‘Water for Life’
theme. One local budding artist later won the Victorian National
Water Week poster competition in the Year 1-2 category.
During the Mildura Show, the Waterwatch team showcased the
ACE stormwater model from Melbourne, and demonstrated how
houses, roads, and drains are all linked to local waterways.
Colourful ‘Create A Critter’ artwork was also on display at the
show.
North Central
A free workshop, free film nights and free theatre performances
were popular events for all ages during North Central Waterwatch’s
National Water Week. The Living Streams workshop in Daylesford
attracted participants from Bendigo, Charlton and Ballarat, who
heard guest speakers discuss platypus, macro invertebrates, birds
and water quality issues. ‘The Day After Tomorrow’’ was shown at
one of the free film nights to highlight climate change and water
resource issues. Over 350 students from local schools involved in
the North Central Waterwatch River Detectives program caught
Vox Bandicoot’s midweek performance called ‘The Last Shower’,
an interactive show about water quality and conservation.
Goulburn Broken
In West Gippsland, Waterwatch was involved in a range of National
Water Week activities. In the Sale region, 6 schools and 250
students were involved in a student bus tour highlighting irrigation
issues with Southern Rural Water, macroinvertebrate monitoring
and tree plantings at the Heyfield Wetlands. Waterwatch
coordinator Tanya Cowell presented a poster display at the
National Stream Management Conference in Tasmania, highlighting
the community water quality monitoring achievements of the
Nooramunga Corner Inlet Project. The ‘Water for Life’ writing and
poster competition was a success in the Latrobe region, with
Traralgon Secondary College student Ebony Hardy winning the Yr
7 & 8 section in the state judging with an excellent poem titled
‘Drought’.
East Gippsland
Involving all local primary schools in the monitoring of all major
rivers was an impressive feat in East Gippsland for National Water
Week. Training casual staff, teachers and students months ahead
of time meant that forty-two schools were prepared to undertake
turbidity, salinity, temperature and macroinvertebrate snapshots.
Schools used the data they collected to prepare presentations for
display during ‘Water Science’ shows, including an elaborate ‘river
rap’ with drums, plays and PowerPoint presentations. The week
was also the perfect occasion for the East Gippsland Waterwatch
program to unveil its new Waterwatch Education Trailer.
Waterwatch Yearbook 2004
Over 5300 people attended events and entered competitions
during National water Week’s ‘Water for Life’ festival in the
Goulburn Broken region. ‘Water Olympics’, the ‘Ricky D Rainman
Show’, and poster competitions captivated primary and secondary
school students. The broader community was engaged during the
week through a boat cruise along the Goulburn and Murray Rivers,
river and wetland walks, a community writing and photography
competition, and movie nights featuring ‘Finding Nemo’, ‘Whale
Rider’ and ‘Storm Boy’. Local garden nurseries got on board
during National Water Week to showcase native and drought
tolerant garden displays.
West Gippsland
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